Process to maintain large clean recreational water bodies

Abstract

The invention discloses a process to implement and maintain water bodies larger than 15,000 m3 for recreational use, such as lakes or artificial lagoons, with excellent color, transparency and cleanness properties at low cost, which comprises the following steps:a.—providing a structure able to contain a large water body larger than 15,000 m3;b.—feeding the structure of step (a) with inlet water having iron and manganese levels lower than 1.5 ppm and turbidity lower than 5 NTU;c.—measuring water pH, ideally it should be within a range lower than 7.8;d.—adding an oxidizing agent to the water contained in the structure of step (a), with which a 600 mV minimal ORP is controlled in water for a minimal period of 4 hours and in maximal cycles of 48 hours;e.—adding a flocculating agent in concentrations within 0.02 and 1 ppm with maximal frequencies of 6 days and cleaning the bottom of the structure of step (a) with a suction device to remove precipitated impurities from the bottom of said structure, together with the additional flocculants and;f.—generating a displacement of surface water containing impurities and surface oils by means of the injection of inlet water according to step (b), which generates said displacement in such a way to remove said surface water by means of a system for impurities and surface oils removal arranged in the structure of step (a), which together with step (e) replaces traditional filtering.The present invention also discloses a structure to contain large water bodies comprising a system for the removal of impurities and surface oils by means of skimmers and the suction device to clean said structure.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention discloses a process to obtain (i.e., to implement and maintain) large water bodies or volumes for recreational use, such as lakes or ponds with excellent color, high transparency and cleanness characteristics similar to swimming pools or tropical seas at low cost, in particular for water bodies larger than 15,000 m3. The invention also comprises a device to extract a particulate material decanted from the water by using the aforementioned process. Furthermore, the present invention discloses a structure to contain large water bodies or volumes, which is specially designed to carry out said process. The decantation process together with the device to extract a decanted material from the water, plus the arrangement of the large volume structure with its functional characteristics of water surface displacement, allow replacing traditional filtration as used in conventional swimming pools that would be very onerous and inefficient in systems ha...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0140]Other advantages of the disclosed process of the present invention are:

[0142]Established regulations for recreational waters with direct contact are widely fulfilled (see Table 2) and comparable parameters of the swimming pool and potable water regulations are also fulfilled (see Tables 3 and 4).

Problems solved by technology

If the amount of organic material in the medium is very high, it can lead to a decrease in dissolved oxygen concentration.

Anaerobic metabolism is much slower than aerobic processes (typically more than one order of magnitude) have lower efficiency, and generates various intermediate organic compounds (e.g. organic acids, alcohols, methane).

If dissolved oxygen is consumed faster than it can be replenished, water starts to deoxygenate.

In addition to bad smell, anaerobic conditions can raise human health issues, because many anaerobic bacteria are pathogenic (for instance, tetanus, and botulism).

When the water contains dissolved sulfates, reducing anaerobic bacteria produce H2S (corrosive and poisonous).

On the contrary, a young water body, poor in nutrients required for life, is called oligotrophic.

Eutrophication can generate serious problems in superficial water bodies.

Finally, the masses of algae deposited in the shore die and rotten, thus producing anaerobic conditions, which present health dangers (e.g. formation of Clostridium botulinum, a strictly anaerobic pathogen microorganism).

On the other hand, aquatic plant ramifications retain organic solids that decompose, which exerts a concentrated oxygen demand.

When artificial water bodies are formed, such as lakes or ponds, water quality deteriorates progressively.

When oxygen decreases, many organic remainders remain deposited in the bottom, thus increasing sediments and suffering processes that increase turbidity, bad smells are produced and the physicochemical and sanitary quality of the water is impaired, which reduces the possibilities of recreational use.

The application of the swimming pool technology to large water bodies to obtain optimal water quality is not possible due to the high cost of the installations and the involved operative costs.

Direct measurement of disinfectant concentration can lead to error, because the activity can be decreased depending on pH and the presence of contaminants, even at high concentrations.

This is not possible with large water bodies due to the high implied costs.

The previously exposed facts make maintaining large water bodies (over 15,000 m3) using filtration and disinfection technologies similar to those of swimming pools for recreational use largely unviable.

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